


Can't Hide Forever

by Syntaxeme



Series: The Holy in Hell [1]
Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Angel True Forms, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Biblical Themes, Biblically Accurate Angels, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fallen Angel Vaggie, Protective Vaggie (Hazbin Hotel), Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26130184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntaxeme/pseuds/Syntaxeme
Summary: Vaggie has worked hard to keep her angelic nature a secret from everyone around her--but lately, she's having a hard time controlling her divine inclinations, and Charlie has noticed that she's in distress. After a day out together meant to lift Vaggie's spirits, the two are cornered by hostile demons, forcing Vaggie to choose which she values more: her secret or Charlie's safety?
Relationships: Charlie Magne & Vaggie, Charlie Magne/Vaggie
Series: The Holy in Hell [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913491
Comments: 6
Kudos: 79





	Can't Hide Forever

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is a commission for the wonderful [sammi_jammi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammi_jammi/pseuds/sammi_jammi), who wanted to see Vaggie accidentally revealing her angelic form to Charlie. This was such an interesting concept to explore, and it gave me a much deeper appreciation for Vaggie's character and her relationship with Charlie~. Thank you so much for commissioning me. I really hope you enjoy the story! 💖

Charlie was the one who ran the hotel’s group rehab sessions; Vaggie was really only there to support her and quiet the group when they got out of hand. So like any other day, she sat by and listened, knowing it wasn’t her place to step in unless she was asked, fighting her irritation with their patrons. Angel Dust was being especially difficult during today’s meeting, arguing with Charlie at every turn, and it was clearly starting to wear on her.

“I’m just sayin’, you never been there,” he said, gesturing vaguely upward. “How would you know it’s so much better?”

“Angel, it’s literally Paradise,” Charlie sighed. “It’s kind of an objective fact that it’s better.”

“Bullshit. They got booze in Heaven? They got blow? It’s bad enough angels don’t do sex,” he complained. Why he was in such a bad mood that day, it was hard to say, but every word out of his mouth stoked Vaggie’s annoyance further. As if he, a fucking demon, had any right to criticize how things were done in Heaven. As if he knew anything about it. “From what I hear, I’d rather just stay where I am.”

That was the last straw.

“Are you fucking stupid?” Vaggie snapped, glaring at him across the ring of chairs they’d set up in the conference room. “Given the choice between Heaven and Hell, you’re saying you’d just stay here?”

“I’m sayin’ I don’t really get the appeal, yeah,” he answered, unfazed by her anger. “What could be waitin’ up there that’s better for a guy like me?”

_‘Therefore they say unto God, “Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.”’_

She tried to brush away the memories of scripture that had been cropping up more and more frequently in the past few weeks. Angel wasn’t the sort of person to listen to biblical advice anyway.

“You’re supposed to want to make _yourself_ better,” she ground out, gripping tightly at the seat of her chair. “So that you can belong there. What part of that don’t you get?”

“It’s okay, Vaggie,” Charlie said, resting a hand on her tense shoulder. “We’re still talking through it. I understand it’s an unfamiliar idea for all of us but—”

“Ya sure about that?” Angel asked, not taking his eyes off Vaggie. “Knives over there sure is actin’ like she knows a thing or two about it. Lemme guess, you were a nun in life? You got family up there but couldn’t make it in yourself?”

“ _Escúchame, maldito cabrón—_ ”

“Ooh, now I really pissed her off,” he snickered, grinning.

“Guys, please, there’s no need for you two to fight,” Charlie insisted. “Look, Angel, you might have a point. No one here has any personal experience with Heaven. But—”

Vaggie abruptly bolted to her feet and strode out of the room, unable to stand being a part of this conversation any longer. She knew she was being childish, yes, but that particular topic when she was already so tense was just too much to bear.

She shut herself into the room she shared with Charlie on the fifth floor and rested her back against the door, then slid down to sit on the floor and wrapped her arms around her knees. _Shit._ She really was getting worse every day.

It had been about six years now since she’d arrived in Hell, but she hadn’t done it in the same way everyone else did. Not like Charlie, who was born there. Not like Angel, who used to be human. Vaggie had bypassed Earth altogether and been sent straight from Heaven to Hell: a fallen angel. Of course, no one else in the hotel knew that. Not a single other demon in Hell knew it, in fact. She’d been desperately keeping it secret ever since her arrival, even from the person she trusted the most—but lately, it was getting harder and harder to keep it all under wraps.

First it was just a vague sense of unease, a feeling that something was wrong, maybe that she wasn’t where she was supposed to be. Then it was the Bible verses coming to her mind unbidden, divine instincts pushing her to judge the demons around her harshly for their ignorance (or just plain depravity). Worst of all, in the past couple of weeks, she’d become very conscious of the effort it took to maintain her ‘normal’ demonic form and mindset without reverting to the appearance and behavior she’d had in Heaven. Every day was a fight between the life she had now, the one she’d built with Charlie, and the centuries of heavenly conditioning lingering in the back of her mind. If she went on much longer being pulled in two different directions, she was bound to end up torn apart.

“Vaggie?” Charlie’s voice and gentle knock from outside the door stirred her from her misery. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she lied by reflex, moving to the side so Charlie could open the door and join her in the darkened room. Even as her girlfriend knelt in front of her, Vaggie couldn’t meet her eyes. “Sorry I stormed off like that. I hope I didn’t ruin the meeting.”

“We were near the end anyway. I don’t know why Angel was being such a jerk today,” Charlie sighed. “I could tell he was really upsetting you.”

“It doesn’t matter. That’s just the way he is; I don’t know why I still bother arguing with him.” _‘If a wise man contendeth with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.’_

“Still, I kind of feel like there’s more to it,” Charlie insisted. “It seems like you’ve been having a hard time for a while now. Is something wrong?”

Vaggie stiffened and pulled her knees closer to her chest. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“C’mon, _querida_ ,” Charlie sighed, touching her cheek gently. “You can talk to me. Whatever’s going on, we’ll figure it out together. I want to help.”

Of course she did. That was all she ever wanted. Vaggie absently rested her hand over Charlie’s to hold it against her skin. Part of her wanted to explain, to confess exactly what was wrong and everything that went with it. But that thought came with so many dangerous what-ifs. Even if Charlie didn’t hate her on principle for being an angel (or a former one), she might never trust her again. She might think Vaggie was using her, that she was only supporting the hotel so that she could get back into Heaven. She would suffer a hundred more years in silence if it meant she wouldn’t risk losing Charlie.

“I’m fine, hon,” she argued, putting on what she hoped was a convincing smile as she looked up to meet her girlfriend’s eyes. “Really. Angel’s just good at working on my nerves. That’s it.”

Though she still seemed very skeptical, Charlie conceded not to press the issue any further, allowing Vaggie to lead her back to hotel business and away from the subject of her discomfort. That was a lot easier to focus on.

— — —

A few days later, Vaggie came downstairs ready for another group session—and steeling herself for Angel’s taunts—only to find the conference room empty. She frowned and checked her calendar on her phone, sure that she had scheduled a meeting for this afternoon. As a pair of hands covered her eyes, she went rigid, but only briefly.

“Guess who,” Charlie cooed in her ear, and she couldn’t help smiling.

“Gosh, I just don’t know,” she teased, reaching up to remove Charlie’s hands from her eyes. When she turned around, she made a face of exaggerated surprise. “Babe! I never would’ve guessed.”

“Ha ha,” Charlie answered, sticking her tongue out. “I have a surprise for you!”

“Did you…cancel the meeting?” Vaggie asked, tilting her head to one side in confusion. The hotel and its patrons were always Charlie’s #1 priority, so it was shocking for her to willfully step away from them.

“I just rescheduled it for tomorrow. I thought today could be an ‘us day’ instead,” she explained cheerfully. “I have a few things planned, if you’re up for it. I was thinking we could go get lunch or maybe ice cream first, then I wanted to do some shopping for the hotel later on; you’ve been saying the lobby could use a makeover, so I think now’s as good a time as any! We’ll spend the whole day being super efficient and productive and…together. Um. Does that sound good to you?”

Charlie’s bashfulness was so cute that Vaggie couldn’t help standing up on her toes for a kiss. It was obvious she had planned all this as a method of improving Vaggie’s bad mood without actually forcing her to talk about it, which fit into her usual character of giving without asking anything in return.

“It sounds great,” Vaggie agreed with a smile, lacing her fingers through her girlfriend’s. “Let’s go.”

Spending the day around town with Charlie—talking about life at the hotel, flirting and teasing at every turn—reminded Vaggie of the earlier days of their relationship, back when being in this form had come so easy to her. It gave her an opportunity to relax, to focus all her attention on Charlie, and it really did improve her mood. They wound up finding some new décor for the hotel to be delivered the next day, working their way across Pentagram City on foot and visiting maybe twenty different stores over the several hours that they were out.

It was only toward the end of the day, as the sun was setting and they were wrapping up their shopping, that she started to feel the drain of all the day’s activity. Being with Charlie was wonderful, but being out and about all day had required a lot of energy, which made it a little harder to hold herself together. She was grateful when Charlie finally called it a day and texted her driver to come pick them up. They had wandered pretty far from the hotel, and it was dangerous to be out in any part of Hell after dark, so the prospect of heading back was a relief.

Except it didn’t happen right away. They stood waiting on some empty sidewalk on the south side of town for maybe twenty minutes before Vaggie finally asked, “He knows where we are, right?”

“Yeah, I told him when we got here. He really should’ve been here by now,” Charlie mumbled, looking down at her phone for the fifth time in the past three minutes. She was starting to look worried herself, and it did nothing for Vaggie’s nerves. Charlie had always been great at smiling through any sort of difficulty, so if her discomfort was showing, it must be bad.

“Don’t worry about it, hon. We’ll just walk.”

“But we’re all the way across town. Walking would take hours.”

“Well, we can’t just stand here all night,” Vaggie huffed, trying her best to stay patient, even though she was getting antsier with every moment the evening edged toward night.

“Oh, he just sent me a text,” her girlfriend said brightly, working hard as always to cheer her up. “He’s waiting a few streets over. We’ll just walk there and meet him. No sweat.” With a heartening smile that Vaggie couldn’t help returning, she laced their fingers together and started off in the direction of the limo. Vaggie didn’t mind letting her take the lead, as her fatigue was starting to get to her, making it harder to focus on making executive decisions.

“Evening, ladies.” A low, rough voice drew her back to the moment as they were taking a shortcut through an alley—already a bad sign, one she should’ve been conscious enough to advise against—and she stopped short as a burly, reptilian demon stepped out of the shadows to block their path. He leered at them menacingly, his eyes particularly trained on Charlie, and already Vaggie’s hackles started to raise. “Nice night for a stroll, dontcha think? Where you off to in such a hurry?”

“Actually, we’re headed back to the Hazbin Hotel,” Charlie answered with a grin, going into her recruitment mode (which had become unnervingly reminiscent of Alastor’s). “Have you not heard of it? Why not come with us and check the place out? I bet you’d fit right in.”

“Babe…” Vaggie muttered, holding her hand tighter as she realized the newcomer wasn’t alone; a couple of other similarly large demons moved in at his back, and about a thousand red flags went up in Vaggie’s mind. “Why don’t we just go around? I don’t think now’s really the time for picking up new recruits.” As she started to step back, however, another two demons filled the alley behind them, blocking their escape route. That made a total of five dangerous-looking brutes surrounding them. _Shit!_

“Now now”—the first one who had spoken, apparently some kind of leader, called their attention again—“there’s no need to be runnin’ off so soon. Why dontcha stick around and tell us some more about that hotel of yours? Our boss is awful interested in it.”

“You’re making a big mistake threatening us,” Vaggie growled, keeping her gaze darting around the group of thugs. “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”

“Sure I do. Lucifer’s brat, right? ‘Princess’ Charlotte? You run that cute little redemption motel uptown.”

“It’s…actually a hotel,” Charlie answered, still managing to smile despite his obvious hostility.

“It’s a fuckin’ joke is what it is,” the lizardlike demon hissed right back. “It’s an embarrassment, especially comin’ from _you_.”

The group moved in slightly, and Vaggie produced a spear to try to keep them back. “It’s an embarrassment to want better for the people she’s supposed to be governing?” she snarled. “It’s an embarrassment to think we’re capable of being more than drug fiends and murderers? How fucking dare you!” It was nearly impossible to ignore the righteous anger welling up inside her, the exact same undeniable compulsion to forcibly right a wrong that had landed her in Hell to begin with.

_‘Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”’_

_I’m trying, damn it!_

“Vaggie, it’s okay,” Charlie said gently, resting a hand on her arm to try to calm her. “I know not everyone understands yet.” To the demon in front of them, she suggested, “But if your boss is so interested, you can tell them to come visit us at the hotel. I’m always happy to educate someone about the cause.” How she could be so determinedly diplomatic about this, Vaggie had no idea. She knew Charlie was capable and could defend herself if necessary, but the question was whether she _would_. This wouldn’t be the first time her kindness had put her in danger.

“Nice try, sweetheart, but I don’t think so. You’re gonna tell him what he wants to know, all right, but it’s gonna happen on our terms. Now why don’t you just come with us and—”

“Don’t fucking touch her!” Vaggie barked, shoving him back as he started to reach for Charlie’s arm.

“Wait, we don’t have to fight,” her girlfriend insisted, still trying to deescalate the situation even when it clearly wasn’t an option anymore.

“You better listen to your little gal pal if you know what’s good for you, bitch.” The head thug squared his shoulders and bared his teeth at Vaggie, towering over her, but she was already long past reason or fear. Her anger at the gall of these demons and her need to protect Charlie were overriding everything else in her mind, including her ability to keep her nature under control.

“I’m giving you one last chance,” she ground out, gripping her spear tighter, already feeling painful—yet somehow eager—stirrings under her skin. ‘ _Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.’_ She could feel herself coming apart at the seams, even her voice starting to splinter into a multitude. “Walk away before I make you regret this.”

“You’re not in any position to be makin’ threats, girl. The boss don’t give a shit about you, but if you try to stop us from—”

“This is takin’ too goddamn long!” one of the other prowling demons snapped, shoving his way to the front of the pack. “Just fuckin’ drop her and take the princess.” He swung at Vaggie, and her body tensed in anticipation—but Charlie moved between them at the last moment and took the blow for her.

“Shit!” the leader hissed as Charlie staggered backward, a dark red welt already forming on her cheekbone. “We weren’t supposed to hurt that one, idiot!”

“Please. You don’t have to do this.” There were tears in Charlie’s voice even as she tried to hold them back, but they weren’t the sort that came from physical pain. Seeing her own people so violent and ruthless toward one another hurt so much more.

The anguish in Charlie’s voice was the last straw, and Vaggie’s willpower snapped cleanly in half. In a flash of blinding light, her natural form burst free of the illusion she’d been maintaining for years, a mass of ever-shifting wings, eyes, and blade-armed hands. Her fall had corrupted it in some ways, leaving her once-gleaming feathers grayed and matted. The halo of light surrounding her still burned just as bright, but more like a solar eclipse than like the Sun itself. Nevertheless, her presence was enough to bring every demon present to their knees, blinded or bleeding from the eyes.

“What the fuck is that thing?” the thugs’ leader stammered out, unable to look away despite the horror on his face.

Fixing her attention solely on him, she answered, “Retribution.” Her voice was a chorus of discordant shrieks, the word hardly intelligible but its meaning clear enough. ‘ _But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for she beareth not the sword in vain: for she is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.’_ “I warned you. I offered the chance to evade punishment and you refused it. This is what you deserve.” She flung one of her deadly-sharp spears down to strike straight through his chest, pinning him to the grimy concrete below before he had a moment to react.

The others fought her thrall and tried to run, but it was already much too late; the moment she’d lost control to her centuries-old divine instincts, they had lost any hope of escape. Vagatha was a flurry of movement, swooping down on one demon to drive a blade through his throat, then cornering another against a wall to run him through and leave him slumped against bloodstained bricks.

 _‘Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.’_ This was what she was made for, her purpose: to find those miserable sinners who reveled in causing others pain and pay it back to them tenfold. A certain sick satisfaction flooded through her with each demon she killed, and even as she hovered at the alley’s mouth, looking down on the five massacred bodies below, something inside her begged for more.

“Vaggie?” A timid voice drew her attention, and she whirled on its owner with another spear at the ready. Though clearly pained by the sight of her, the demon didn’t look away, even managing to force a weak smile despite the streaks of bloody tears down her face. “I-I think you got ‘em… Can you…come down?” Vagatha remained where she was, her mind stalling slightly. What sort of demon would be so civil toward—

 _Charlie!_ All at once, she came back to herself enough to recognize her girlfriend, enough to realize what had just happened, and she seized control to contain herself back into her usual form. She collapsed hard against the pavement, curling up tightly, shaking from head to toe as she tried to escape the vengeful thoughts still threatening to overtake her. _It’s over, it’s over, they’re dead, let it go!_

Naturally, Charlie was at her side within seconds, but Vaggie couldn’t even manage to look at her. How the hell was she supposed to explain this? All the time they’d known each other, Charlie had thought she was just another demon, another mortal soul sent from Earth to Hell, but that lie had just been blown to pieces in a matter of minutes. What would she think now? Ironically enough, panicking over the state of their relationship helped ground Vaggie more in herself—the person that she was _now_ , not the angel she’d been years ago—and her trembling slowly calmed.

When she finally got the courage to steal a glance upward, Charlie was watching her with concern written all over her face. Her eyes were still red, her cheeks still bloodstained, but she hardly seemed to notice at all. “Hey,” she said gently, starting to reach out, then pulling her hand back. _She’s not comfortable touching me anymore. Of course she’s not._ “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Vaggie answered automatically, carefully pushing herself up into a sitting position. “I’m…I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for any of that—they were threatening you. And then you got hurt and it was my fault and I couldn’t stand—” Her increasingly-frantic explanation cut off abruptly as Charlie pulled her into a tight hug, despite her still being covered in blood.

“Just breathe for a minute,” she said, fingertips moving slowly up and down between Vaggie’s shoulder blades, comforting and familiar. Very hesitantly, Vaggie let her own arms wrap around Charlie, then tightened her grip and buried her face against her girlfriend’s shoulder. She hated when she got this way but was always immensely grateful when Charlie helped her through it. Focusing on her breathing helped, like they both knew it would, and once she was a little more stable, Charlie suggested, “Do you want to talk about this, or…?”

Or? She was giving another option? How could she possibly be okay with moving on from the subject without discussing it? “No,” Vaggie said honestly, “but we should. Can we go back to the hotel first?”

“Sure.”

It took some concentration, but she was able to make her way to the limo without leaning on Charlie too much—though their hands stayed clasped the entire time. If the driver was surprised at the state they were in, he didn’t show it, simply apologizing for being in the wrong place and holding the door open for them. The ride back to the hotel was quiet, but unfortunately, Vaggie’s mind couldn’t shut up. Charlie wasn’t acting any differently than usual. Maybe she was still in shock. Maybe she just didn’t know how else to respond. Maybe she still didn’t understand exactly what she’d seen, and it would be Vaggie’s explanation of her past that made the situation clear. She was not looking forward to going into all that, but really, Charlie had a right to know. They couldn’t avoid it forever.

When they got into the lobby, they found Angel and Alastor hanging around the front desk to bother Husk, who was apathetic about their presence as usual. When Angel caught sight of them, his eyes went wide and he called, “Damn, princess! I thought you were pickin’ out curtains or some shit for the hotel, but it looks like you were doin’ somethin’ way more fun.” When neither of the girls responded to his teasing, instead continuing on their way toward the elevator, he must have noticed that something was up. Frowning slightly, he asked, “Uh, hey, you two okay? Somethin’ happen, or…?”

“You didn’t run into any trouble out there, did you?” Alastor asked, looking them over with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You could’ve called, you know, if you needed help.”

“It’s nothing,” Charlie assured them, mercifully allowing Vaggie not to speak. She didn’t have the energy to deal with either of them at the moment, not when they were both so talented at making her angry. “Don’t worry about it. We did buy a few things for the hotel; they’ll be here tomorrow. It’s getting late, so I think we’re headed to bed. Good night! Don’t stay up too late, Angel. We still have a session in the morning.” Somehow, just listening to her cheerful voice was a comfort.

When they got up to their room, Vaggie took a shower hot enough to scald and tried to scrub the evening’s events off her skin while Charlie stood outside and talked about business as usual. She acted like nothing had even happened. Afterward, they both got into their pajamas and sat on the bed together. Charlie didn’t speak, simply waiting on her to decide she was ready.

“How’s your cheek?” Vaggie asked first.

“Still stings a little, but I’m sure it’ll be healed by tomorrow.”

“Good.” She wanted to kiss it but didn’t want to push any boundaries when she wasn’t sure where they stood. Another moment of silence. _Might as well get on with it._ With a deep breath to steel herself, Vaggie muttered, “So, I’m not…exactly human. I mean. I never was, even before I got here.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what I figured,” her girlfriend agreed with a half-smile. “The way you looked earlier, with the wings and all…”

“It’s pretty much what it looks like.” _Just say it. There’s nothing else to do._ “I was an angel before we met.” She steeled herself for Charlie’s reaction, but she didn’t really offer one. Her brows were furrowed, her mouth twisted into a frown that would’ve been cute at any other time.

“But you’re here now. So that means you fell,” she reasoned, and Vaggie nodded. “How’d that happen?”

“I was…interfering on Earth,” she explained, her eyes drifting down toward the apple-patterned bedspread as she thought back to the day she was cast out. “I would see humans sinning, hurting others, refusing to repent, and—well, you know what my temper’s like. It drove me crazy to see all that happening and not do anything about it. The others told me a million times that it wasn’t our place to step in unless we were ordered to, and I tried to hold back, but it was so hard.” Speaking quietly, as if to herself, she went on, “Wasn’t that what He made me for? I just wanted to serve my purpose. I even started getting angry with the others, like they were enabling sin by not intervening wherever they could. So I did it for them. And they sent me here for stepping out of line.”

What Vaggie had seen as righteous fury, her fellow angels had labeled Wrath. It wasn’t suitable for a servant of God to so quickly turn to violence as a teaching method, to be so unyielding and unforgiving. There was too much anger in her, they said, and it corrupted the purity of her nature. The archangels had sent her away without even giving her the chance to argue.

And now what was Charlie supposed to think of her? Not only was she once an angel, the complete antithesis of Charlie and all the people she cared about, but she was a _bad_ one. She had been in Paradise, she had been given every opportunity for salvation, and she had still messed it up enough to be sent to Hell. Surely that made her worse than the average demon. Surely someone like her couldn’t be redeemed.

Charlie took both her hands to hold them, drawing her out of her self-destructive spiral. “That’s awful.” There was genuine remorse and sympathy all over her face and filling her voice. “You had good intentions; you didn’t deserve to be punished for that. I know this is probably selfish of me, but…I’m really grateful that you’re here instead of there.”

“You’re grateful?”

“Of course I am! If you hadn’t been, y’know, sent away, I might have never met you,” Charlie pointed out, rubbing her thumb gently along Vaggie’s knuckles. “And the hotel definitely wouldn’t have come this far without your help. I know it isn’t fair what happened to you, but you’re helping so many people by being here. You’re helping me. So, yeah. I’m grateful.”

This wasn’t the response Vaggie had expected at all. “You’re not mad at me for lying to you?” she insisted. “You’re not uncomfortable with me being a fallen angel?”

With a lighthearted laugh, her girlfriend answered, “Babe, what do you think my parents are? Of course I’m not uncomfortable. I got scared earlier, sure, but I was scared for _you_. I already know who you are, Vaggie.” She leaned in to plant a soft kiss on Vaggie’s nose. “And I love you.”

“I love you too.” Frankly, she was surprised she could speak at all. After all that fear, all that dread and anxiety, seeing Charlie be her usual sweet self was such an immense relief that it almost made Vaggie’s head spin. But really, what else should she have expected?

 _‘And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves.’_ Charlie was a more powerful force of good than Vaggie had ever been, pure good and understanding and forgiveness, not sharp or violent, not quick to judge. It was amazing, almost unbelievable that someone so kind could’ve been brought up in Hell, yet against all odds, there she was—and there they were together.

_How can I not be grateful too?_

“I have to admit, though,” Charlie went on with a mischievous smile, “I kind of liked seeing you like that. Gory rampages aren’t usually my thing, but since you were doing it in my defense, it was kind of cute.”

“Oh, really? Because I’m pretty sure your eyes were bleeding the whole time.”

“Only because I couldn’t look away from my beautiful girlfriend,” she answered with a wink, and Vaggie hoped the warmth on her cheeks wasn’t visible.

“Calm down, Casanova. You’re definitely not gonna be seeing that side of me again any time soon.” In fact, now that she was no longer worried about Charlie’s reaction, she felt more at ease than she had in months. She wasn’t as nervous, wasn’t as irritable, didn’t feel like maintaining her form required all her focus. Those few minutes of exercising her instincts earlier must have satisfied them for the time being.

“No, I understand, special occasions only. Maybe on our anniversary?”

Despite herself, Vaggie laughed and shook her head. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You like it~.”

Since they were both sort of drained from all that excitement earlier, they went to bed soon after. As Vaggie lay in her girlfriend’s arms in the darkened room, she found herself almost shockingly content, feeling even closer to Charlie than before. It was nice not to have to hide things anymore. Whether she would want to tell the others, however, was a totally different story. A cold chill crept up her spine as she wondered how less understanding demons would react if they knew what she was. Demons like Lucifer, for example, who surely wouldn’t like his daughter dating a delinquent from Heaven.

Trying to banish those thoughts from her mind, she snuggled closer to her girlfriend and focused on the sound of her breathing, the scent of her hair. Charlie was the most important thing, the most precious thing in any realm. As long as they were together, Vaggie was absolutely certain she could get past any obstacle that was thrown at her.


End file.
